Kaberle/By S. Bradley
Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli said today that while he was getting deals done with three players, he continued to keep the door open for the return of Tomas Kaberle.
“I had a few discussions today with him,” said Chiarelli about Kaberle’s agent Rick Curran. “That’s where I’ll leave it.”
Chiarelli noted that there are a couple other defensemen he is still pursuing. But no deals were imminent and they might not even happen, the GM said.
Chiarelli’s three moves of the day were signing Benoit Pouliot away from Montreal to a one-year deal and retaining Providence players Anton Khudobin and Trent Whitfield on two-year deals. More on that later.
Published By mattk Fri. July 1, 2011 5:16 pm EDT
Unless Cohen has learned how to play some D in the minor leagues, we will HATE him. When he was at BU, he had a good shot. That was pretty much it, oh and more “adventures” than Dennis Wideman had in the regular season.
Agreed Bartkowski isn’t ready yet, but I’m not sure if Hamilton will be along in a year, my guess is two or three.
Bartkowski didn’t impress me much. It might be a little bit of the inexperience showing, but I would like to see other defensemen like Cohen and Alexandrov get a shot.
bruins16
My spelling mistake, Steven Kampfer (defenseman).
Lose Kaberle’s phone number! I think Kempfer will improve his passing and his defense is already better than Kaberle’s. Kaberle doesn’t like the physical part of the game and gets pushed off the puck too easily. As well Bartkowski deserves to get a good shot, with Kempfer. I think Dougie Hamilton will be in Boston within a year and I also think Ryan Button will be knocking on the door at that same time period.
Luke I completely agree that a lot of teams overpaid and while it might work out for the coming season, they may end up putting their teams in a position of being unable to sign key players they want to keep while having contracts that cant unload.
I perfectly happy that the Bruins were mostly able to stand pat.
I also kind of think resigning Kaberle might be a good move provided the deal isn’t overlong or doesn’t involve too much money. I am not 100% certain Kaberle is a good fit, but I often wonder if he wouldn’t do better playing with the team for a whole season-especially with the Stanley Cup monkey off the back of the team (not that I don’t want the team to repeat, but I don’t think the pressure is there in quite the same way the team has felt the pressure the last few years).
I am curious though who the other defensemen are that Chia was looking at. While I wouldn’t mind resignging Kaberle, my real hope is for a really strong defenseman who can anchor the second pairing.
I like both of those Providence deals a lot. Trent Whitfield is a big organization boost even if his contributions aren’t directly felt. Keeping Khudobin from jumping to the KHL was a nice move also, just in case one goalie gets hurt we don’t have to overwork the starter.
I really think teams overpaid this year and unless the cap keeps rising those teams will feel the effect fast. I just can’t believe some of these contracts, imagine if Bergy or Chara hadn’t been given extensions last year.
Sign him already, dammit
You got rid of Ryder’s 3-4m and picked up Pouliot who IMO is a wimp at over 6ft. and 200lbs but he’ll give you at least what Ryder has produced at only 1m. Call me a dumbass (you’d be right) but I think Kaberle has something to prove in Boston. With a real year in the Bruins’ system around the strong D corps in place here, I really think his defense tightens up, he’s under less pressure and we see the real potential. 3-3.5 for 1 year. YOU CAN DOOOO EEET!
Wouldn’t want to lose Reg Dunlop.
whew. i was worried trent would fly the coop.